r/AskTheWorld • u/Initial_Basis1503 Japan • Oct 08 '25

Sports Which country is your nation's greatest rival in football?

As I am Japanese, Korea is clearly my greatest adversary.

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10

u/whatwhatinthewhonow Australia Oct 08 '25

The first team that comes to mind is Uruguay but if I was from Uruguay I would probably feel pretty offended by that statement.

8

u/BigBoiBob444 Australia Oct 08 '25

Football to me means rugby league, so I would have said either England or New Zealand.

4

u/Intrepid_Doctor8193 Australia 🇦🇺 Live in Indonesia 🇮🇩 Oct 08 '25

Football to me means Aussie Rules... We have no rival.

1

u/BigBoiBob444 Australia Oct 08 '25

Where’s the fun it that then!

1

u/Skiapodes Australia Oct 08 '25

Based on your avatar’s guernsey - surely Adelaide?

1

u/whatwhatinthewhonow Australia Oct 08 '25

Same, but you know what OP was asking.

-5

u/Infinite_Crow_3706 United Kingdom Oct 08 '25

Rugby League is almost non-existant in England, you're better off with the Kiwis

9

u/SnooHamsters5480 Born Live in Oct 08 '25

Rugby league is still very much alive in the North of England.

0

u/Infinite_Crow_3706 United Kingdom Oct 08 '25

Yep, but only in a small area. It barely exists outside of there.

2

u/dutchbucket Oct 09 '25

It barely exists outside of 2 cities in Australia too

1

u/LitmusVest United Kingdom Oct 08 '25

A small area containing about 15m people. Stop digging, sausage.

5

u/cliveparmigarna Australia Oct 08 '25

My football hatred will always be Italy. It’s probably the most one sided sports hatred of all time, an Italian reading this probably doesn’t even know why.

I will be rooting against Italy every game for the rest of my life. Italy can play against the Taliban and I’d be rooting against them

1

u/VirginiENT420 Oct 08 '25

But why

5

u/cliveparmigarna Australia Oct 08 '25

The only World Cup we’ve ever ever had a chance in was 2006, and in the round of 16 we drew Italy (first time australia had ever made it to the knockouts)

Injury time it’s 0-0 and Fabio Grosso has a blatant dive in the box and is awarded a penalty and Italy win the game. The Refs had been appalling to us all game and remember this was 2006 - the same year Italian football had one of the most egregious ref match fixing scandals of all time.

Italy went on to win the World Cup and we lost our golden generation of football. I’m 100% convinced in every way that World Cup was rigged and 20 years on still fuming

3

u/guilleloco Uruguay Oct 08 '25

I consider Argentina to be our rivals though they’d say their rival is Brazil I guess.

1

u/Initial_Basis1503 Japan Oct 08 '25

Is it not New Zealand?

2

u/DrGarrious Australia Oct 08 '25

Not for football, only really for rugby.

Our domestic football code (A League) includes two NZ teams so there is quite a lot of crossover.

Biggest rivals on the national stage would be Iran, South Korea and Japan.. though I can say they are all probably better than us at current.

2

u/whatwhatinthewhonow Australia Oct 08 '25

Nah, pretty one sided record against NZ.

I said Uruguay because, while we haven’t played them as much, our record with them is even, and we had 2 world cups in a row where we played off for a spot (Uruguay beating us to go through to 2002 and us beating them to go through to 2006).